British Joseph James O’Connor, aka PlugwalkJoe, 24,’s career as a computer hacker has earned him a prison sentence. O’Connor and his accomplices impersonated Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Kanye West or Kim Kardashian and confiscated their Twitter accounts to raise funds through deception. In one of the most notorious hacks, they also hacked celebrities’ TikTok and Snapchat accounts, as well as the Twitter accounts of companies like Apple and Uber. He was arrested by the National Police in Estepona (Málaga) in July 2021. Almost two years later, a New York court sentenced him to five years in prison, according to the Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
O’Connor was extradited from Spain on April 26 and his case has since been dealt with in summary proceedings. On May 9, he pleaded guilty to numerous cybercrimes and the verdict was published this Friday. O’Connor was convicted on two counts.
On the one hand, for computer hacking conspiracy and other allegations related to a fraudulent plan that was carried out together with other accomplices to use a cyber intrusion technique called SIM swapping attack to steal cryptocurrencies, then worth about $794,000 from to steal cryptocurrency-based cryptocurrencies from a Manhattan cryptocurrency company and then to launder the proceeds of these crimes
A number of charges have also been filed related to O’Connor’s role in the July 2020 Twitter hack, computer break-ins related to the takeover of TikTok and Snapchat user accounts, and cyberstalking of two victims. One of the victims was blackmailed after taking private pictures. The other, a minor, was harassed and threatened, and even made false 911 calls to provoke a law enforcement response that could endanger the victim or others, a practice known as swatting. This second set of charges was initially prosecuted in California and then moved to New York where they merged.
Eventually, O’Connor pleaded guilty to the first count of conspiracy to break into computers, conspiracy to wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money. And in relation to the second sentence, the Briton has admitted to one computer burglary conspiracy, two computer burglary counts, blackmailing communications, two harassment counts and threatening communications.
In addition to the five-year prison sentence, O’Connor was given a three-year suspended sentence. The verdict, apparently the result of an agreement, is relatively lenient considering some of the crimes for which he was convicted carry prison terms of up to 20 years. The total maximum sentence for all crimes was a maximum of 70 years. By pleading guilty, the convict also agreed to forfeit $794,012.64 and compensate the victims of his crimes, which is also included in the sentence.
“O’Connor’s criminal activity was flagrant and malicious, and his conduct affected the lives of many. “He molested, threatened, and blackmailed his victims, causing them significant emotional damage,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a statement last May when the defendant pleaded guilty. “Like many criminal actors, O’Connor attempted to remain anonymous by using a computer to hide behind clandestine accounts and aliases from outside the United States. But this admission of guilt shows that our investigators and prosecutors will identify, locate and bring to justice these types of criminals to ensure they face the consequences of their crimes,” he added.
“O’Connor left an impressive trail of destruction in his crime spree,” said US Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey for the Northern District of California. “This case is a warning that the reach of the law is far reaching and criminals who use computers to commit crime may face consequences in places they never anticipated.”
quick arrests
The Spanish police operation called Portland was carried out by the Central Cybercrime Unit in cooperation with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Investigations began in Spain in April 2020 when the United States informed the National Police that the young man, who was already under investigation for other crimes, could be on Spanish territory. The investigation led investigators to the Costa del Sol, where he was staying.
The hacking of more than a hundred Twitter accounts took place on the night of July 15, 2020 and was carried out in conjunction with other accomplices. News of the scams reached more than 350 million people, allowing criminals to steal $117,000 in just a few hours by asking followers to send bitcoins to an account. They promised that anyone who did so would get back double the amount entered. This is a well-known attack that has its own page on Wikipedia.
The social network itself published a message confirming the attack: “We are aware of a security incident affecting Twitter accounts. We’re investigating the issue and taking action to fix it. We will inform everyone shortly. tweeted the social networkwho followed up the incident.
“We have discovered what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by individuals that has given some of our employees access to internal systems and tools.” explained the next day. and added in another tweet: “We know they used this access to take control of many highly visible accounts (including verified ones) and tweet on their behalf. We are investigating what other malicious activities they may have carried out or what information they may have accessed.”
Two weeks after the attack, on July 31, 2020, the US Department of Justice announced the arrest and indictment of three people in connection with the fraud. A 19-year-old from the United Kingdom has been charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to launder money and willful access to a protected computer, and a 22-year-old from Florida has been charged with aiding and facilitating international access. . A third person, Graham Ivan Clark, a youth from Hillsborough County, Florida, was also charged. In March 2021, he accepted a deal and was sentenced to three years in prison followed by three years of probation.
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